Blog Archives for March 2015

The Morning Heresy is your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.

Today the U.S. and Iran are expected to announce a deal on Iran's nuclear program. Just in time, Point of Inquiry has a guest with deep expertise on the U.S.'s 30-year conflict with Iran: Senior Historian for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, David Crist. Don't miss it.

The Morning Heresy is your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.

There's a lot to cover this morning, folks. Buckle up.

It's happened again. Bangladeshi atheist blogger Washiqur Rahman is murdered by machete-wielding assailants in Dhaka, and police detain two madrasa students in connection with the attack. From the Dhaka Tribune:

He was a admirer of another secular blogger Avijit Roy, who was killed by extremists in Dhaka one month ago. After Avijit’s killing, Washiqur paid tribute to him making his Facebook profile and cover photos with the text: #iamavijit and words cannot be killed.

You know that CFI's Michael De Dora represents us at the UN, and was just at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. But what goes on there besides all the statements and speeches? Michael gives us a behind-the-scenes look at all the bureaucratic intrigue.

Rep. Sam Johnson wants to make sure military servicemembers have to swear an oath to God, whether they believe in it or not. We think you should tell your congressperson otherwise.

The Morning Heresy is your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.

CFI-Michigan's activism in opposition to a religious sign in a public park is covered in two pieces at MLive and at the Holland Sentinel. CFI-Michigan's Jennifer Beahan hammered home the central point at a meeting of the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners: "Frankly, it doesn't matter how many people want the sign replaced, it is still unconstitutional." Alas, the board voted in favor of the sign anyway, which quotes Psalm 19:1 - “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handiwork.”

The Morning Heresy is your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.

We've got an awesome Point of Inquiry this week, where Josh Zepps talks to Johann Hari about the century-old war on drugs, and how (according to Hari) so much of what we assume to be true about addiction and prevention are simply wrong.

Ted Cruz officially enters the GOP primaries, and makes no bones about who he is trying to appeal to. At Liberty University the Senator for Texas said:

Imagine millions of courageous conservatives all across america rising up together to say in unison, 'We demand our liberty.' Today, roughly half of born again Christians aren’t voting. They’re staying home. Imagine instead millions of people of faith all across america coming out to the polls and voting our values.

The Morning Heresy is your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.

Our boss Ron Lindsay announced this morning that he'll be resigning from CFI at the end of 2015. Though this grieves me mightily, he will certainly be going out with CFI in excellent shape, and he's leaving us a good long time to have a smooth transition to the next overlord. Richard Dawkins tweets:

There goes a good man. Thanks, Ron, and no doubt you’ll give the secular world a great last year in office.

The Morning Heresy is your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.

More reactions to the New York Times' awful smartwatches-and-phones-cause-cancer piece, with Daniel Engber at Slate calling it, "So weird, and so bad, and so weirdly bad." Dave Pell concedes the point, but tries to strike a middle ground about the general cloud of unknown that surrounds the larger impact of these devices:

Should I be at least a little concerned? I would think so. But I’m even more concerned by the fact that I probably wouldn’t move either device out of reach even if science confirms my darkest dystopian paranoia. And even if our physical health is in no danger, there is absolutely no doubt that our psychological and social worlds are in a state of chaos that is of our doing, but not fully in our control. And that scares us.

The Times' public editor Margaret Sullivan says yeah, maybe it should have been vetted a bit more, and reveals that no one involved in science at the paper ever saw the article before it was published. Says it all, doesn't it?

The Morning Heresy is your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.

NYT tech journalist Nick Bilton (who is usually among the very best) publishes a techno-panic piece about how smartwatches might-maybe-possibly cause cancer, and bases it on blatantly weak and tenuous inferences. To make matters worse, consults pseudoscientific Dr. Oz pal Joseph Mercola for comment. Russell Brandom at The Verge, in a piece that is subtitled "Cram it, Bilton," writes:

Bilton tackles an interesting and important question: could smartwatches be raising your risk of cancer? There are decades of research that could speak to the question, since all the relevant radiation is also emitted by cell phones. Unfortunately, Bilton ignores almost all of it, kicking the piece off by comparing the new Apple Watch to smoking cigarettes.

The Morning Heresy is your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.

Yesterday our own Michael De Dora took Saudi Arabia to task at the UN Human Rights Council for its hypocrisy in hosting a religious freedom conference in the same city in which Raif Badawi and other dissidents are imprisoned and abused (video of his statement will be coming soon):

We welcome, indeed encourage member state involvement in the Istanbul Process [religious freedom conference]. However, given its human rights record, Saudi Arabia strikes us as an inappropriate setting for the next meeting. If Saudi Arabia is sincere about acting as host of the next meeting, it could begin to validate its role rather easily: release all prisoners of conscience immediately and unconditionally, drop all charges against them, and move to protect freedom of religion, belief, and expression. We urge them to do so, and urge member states to keep them accountable.

Michael De Dora will presenting to the UN Human Rights Council again later today, in the mean time we have our colleague Elizabeth O'Casey arguing in favor of free expression as a way to counteract religious violence.

The Morning Heresy is your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.

CFI's Michael De Dora delivered what I think was a pretty powerful statement on free expression on and offline at the UN Human Rights Council, specifically stating that "states in this room" were guilty of violating this right.

The Morning Heresy is your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.

Very good insight comes this morning from two of our fearless leaders in Free Inquiry on the CFI merger with its programs Council for Secular Humanism and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. First, we have CFI boss Ron Lindsay what unites skepticism and humanism:

What is it that skeptics do? Well, as the mission statement of CSI indicates, one of the important things that skeptics do is use science, reason, and critical inquiry to examine controversial and extraordinary claims.

So, what’s Avijit’s most important legacy? I cannot help pondering. In my opinion, it is that he transformed many minds, both young and adult, toward freedom, toward the courage to question convention, authority, tradition the “sacred” — toward a world free from all kinds of shackles and superstitions.

The Morning Heresy is your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.

Yesterday, freethought writer Rafida Bonya Ahmed, wife of murdered writer Avijit Roy, chose the Center for Inquiry to deliver her first public statement after she survived the attack that her husband did not. We are honored to share her story. She calls the attack "a crime not only against a person, but against freedom of speech and humanity." Bangladesh news outlets are focused on the part of her statement in which she says, "While Avijit and I were being ruthlessly attacked, the local police stood close by and did not act."

Sam Harris interviews Dr. Nina L. Shapiro, a pediatric otolaryngologist (which I had to look up to know that that means "ear and throat doctor"), about the anti-vaccine movement and why so many people are afraid of them.

The Morning Heresy is your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.

Oliver Laughland and Saad Hammadi at The Guardian have a wonderful piece on Avijit Roy and what he meant to people around the world, which includes a look at his conversations with our own Michael De Dora.

Tristram Korten at the Miami Herald reports that officials at the Florida (of course) Department of Environmental Protection were instructed by their higher-ups at the Office of General Counsel not to use the terms "climate change," "global warming," or even "sustainability" in any of their materials.

“The Supreme Court is poised to make a historic decision, potentially extending the protections and benefits of marriage to all Americans,” said Nicholas Little, Legal Director of CFI. “If they affirm the right of same-sex couples to marry, they will have made truly momentous advancements for equal treatment under the law, secular government, and even the fundamental human need for love and companionship.”

It's not just us. In fact, a titanic alliance of almost 400 super-corporations including Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Comcast, Levi's, Nike, Proctor & Gamble, Wells Fargo, United Airlines, and more file their own joint brief in support of marriage equality. I bet ours is better, but good on you guys.

Following the brutal murder of Avijit Roy by Islamic extremists in Bangladesh, our own Michael De Dora (a friend and admirer of Roy's) made the media rounds over the weekend to discuss Roy, his work, and the larger meaning of this tragedy. He spoke twice on CNN (here and here), with deeper coverage from CNN's Ray Sanchez. Roy lived in the Atlanta area of Georgia, and Michael spoke to Georgia pubic radio about him, as well as Buffalo-area WGRZ television, and a lengthy panel discussion on BBC Radio's World Have Your Say. I'm sure there's some I'm missing.